


THE MAN WHO KILLED KYLO REN

by Lil_Lola_Blue



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Lives, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Magical Realism, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey Skywalker, Reylo - Freeform, Save Ben Solo, TROS Fix IT, The Rise of Skywalker Fix it, the man who killed kylo ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22553098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Lola_Blue/pseuds/Lil_Lola_Blue
Summary: O Best Beloved, this is a fairy tale. A fable. A tale to be told around the fire. It is a poem without verses about a man without limits. There will be love and death. Sex and violence. Magic and monsters. Beauty and the Beast. This is the story of a man who became a legend, and a legend who became a man. The story of a man who was a poet, a prince, and a pirate. A mystic desperado. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 9
Kudos: 4





	1. A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

**Chapter 1: A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…**

General Organa-Solo had a somber seriousness about her, as the celebrations raged around her.

She kept looking at the stars.

Ben had given Rey life.

And he had given his mother back the life she had given to him.

Which could only mean that he had finally got what he wanted.

“Rey.”

Rey had been sitting beside her for hours, with tears running down her face, just clinging to her master’s hand.

“Oh, Master Leia. I feel so empty. I feel like when all of this grief pours out of me, nothing else will be left.”

“We have each other, Rey. I have survived more terrible things than this. So have you. One morning you’ll wake up, and you’ll feel like getting out of bed. The warmth of the sun. The smell of the air. The sounds of the trees. They’ll all mean something to you again. Time will pass, and put enough days between you and this day that you will feel again. Until then? I will be your strength.”

Leia felt strong.

Strong in the Force.

Strong in her mission.

Strong as the rock upon which the Second Republic would be built.

Skywalkers had many births, and many deaths, and many lives in-between.

“Look up at the stars, Rey. Ever since Ben was a boy, he loved the stars more than the land. He was always happy when he was flying. He used to tell me, the stars belong to me. They have since the day I was born. I have faith in them, and they have never failed me. They are cold, and they are distant. But not to me. They are mine. Now? The stars do belong to Ben. And we are going to make sure that everyone in this Galaxy knows what he gave for them.”

Rey wiped the tears from her eyes.

She nodded.

She even smiled, a little.

“General? This package came for you.”

It was Poe.

He came and sat with his General, and his friend.

“You shouldn’t be crying. What happened?”

“Rey and I both lost someone we loved, in the battle.”

“Oh. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Poe. And if it’s not alright, tonight? One of these tomorrows? It will be.” 

General Solo opened the box.

She looked inside, and dropped it.

Poe picked it up.

He removed Kylo Ren’s bloody gloves, and his bloody surcoat, with a hole in the belly, made by a lightsaber. 

In the bottom of the box was a broken mask

“Holy mother Force! It’s proof he’s dead! Look at that hole in his coat! And his mask is broken. There’s a note.”

Poe grabbed it.

“Kylo Ren is dead. Now the stars belong to me.”

Leia too it from him.

She passed it to Rey.

Rey began to cry, but they were tears of joy.

“I don’t get it. What does it mean?”

“It means that Rey and I may have lost someone we loved. But not forever. He’s alive, Poe. And he’s free.”

“Who?” Poe asked.

Rey tried to sob a name, but Leia touched her arm.

“The man who killed Kylo Ren.”

***

**Tattoine: One Year Later**

After Rey buried Master Skywalker’s lightsaber, she decided to stay on Tatttoine.

The desert, after all, was her home.

And politics was General Organa-Solo’s mileau, not hers.

Poe went back into the spice business, and even branched out to include good booze and cigarillos.

Finn joined him in yo ho, you ho, a pirate’s life for me.

And in their business?

They needed a good scavenger.

Rey was that.

A year or so went by.

Finn and Poe bought themselves a posh bachelor pad in Anchorhead, but Rey preferred solitude.

She knew that that both of them would have been willing to give her a shoulder to cry on, and the benefit of a man’s company.

But Rey was waiting for The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

She invested her profits from her business with her friends in making the old Skywalker farm a nice place to live.

When she wasn’t whizzing around the stars with her friends, she led a peaceful, solitary life as the guardian of the legacy of the family that gave all for the peace that finally broke out in the Galaxy.

Waiting.

With infinite patience.

Skywalkers didn’t die.

They had many births and many deaths, and lived many lives in-between.

Someday, he would come.

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

Besides, Rey wasn’t wholly alone.

Poe always let BB8 go with her, to keep tabs on her, and Threepio and Artoo were glad to finally get to go home.

It was a special place for her.

In the two years between when she and Ben killed Snoke, and when they killed the Emperor?

They used to meet at the Skywalker Farm.

Their bonds remained unbroken, even after she had rejected his offer to join him, and they had grown closer, not just through the talks, and the laughing, and the stories, most of which were lies.

Yelling.

Pointing fingers.

Sneering.

Cursing.

Stamping feet.

Breaking things.

Throwing shit about.

Lightsaber duels.

Even the bad times, even the shit times were precious to her, now.

Rey would sit, quietly, watching the twin suns, and think about the past.

Like the time they had a horrible fight through their bond, and called each other vicious names, and threw things at each other, and smashed up their own gear, in a rage.

But then Ben had said:

“I need to see you in person, Rey.”

“Why? What can we do in person that we can’t do through our little talks?”

“We can make love. Don’t you want to? I do.”

“There is nothing like love between us, Kylo Ren!”

Ben had given her the Solo shrug.

The one he didn’t even know he did.

“Then we can fuck. I’d rather fuck. I was just trying to be chivalrous.”

And somewhere in their laughter, they had agreed to meet at the Skywalker farm, on Tattoine.

Ben had been there, and he left the whole place in ruins, except for one bedroom.

It was his refuge.

Rey would lie there, in Ben’s big, brass bed, and close her eyes and think about when he was there, beside her.

Those stolen days and nights where they would laugh, and fight, and fuck and cuddle under the fur blanket in the cold desert night and plan for a future they both knew would never happen.

Sometimes, she could almost feel his big body, lying there beside her, his hands under his head as he spun his wild tales and big dreams and mystical revelations like star charts made of spider silk across the ceiling and out into the desert sky.

He was a desperado and a poet, The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

If she closed her eyes when she lay in the bed they had shared, she could smell his scent.

Hear his voice.

Feel the way her little body had moved under his big, strong hands.

Rey often cried, bitter tears.

But that was life.

Love is death, life is pain, and somehow you muddle through.

That is the life of the woman who waited, with infinite patience for the pirate and the poet, the mystic desperado.

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

***

Shortly after the first anniversary of the Battle of Exegol, Rey was walking down a busy street in Anchorhead when she saw Chewie.

They hugged, and Rey was truly happy.

She took him to Poe and Finn’s and they tried to get information out of him, but Chewie would only say he was working.

As he left, he asked Rey a very honest question.

“Are you happy?”

“I am content, Chewie. I have friends, work, a place to live, enough money, and I have peace.”

“But are you happy?”

“No. Happiness went with Ben. A lot of things I had went with Ben. Love. Hope. Any interest I had in men, poor Poe, and poor Finn. But I still have life. And I can still enjoying being content with it.”

“Content to do what, Rey?”

“To wait for him. The man who knows the stars belong to him. To the world? I am nothing. To him? I am everything. The stars may be distant. And cold. But they are his. And I am his. I will wait a thousand lifetimes for him, Chewie. I am a Skywalker, now. And Skywalkers do not die. They have many births and many deaths. And live many lives in between. And this is the life I will spend waiting. For The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”


	2. The Stars Belong To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren teaches us his song, and we hear of his legend. Also in which Ben Solo's name comes up.

The big man was dressed all in black.

A black pilot’s shirt, and a black leather pilot’s jacket.

Black Corellian pilot’s pants.

Heavy black jackboots, leather and dust and sand.

His hair and his long, thin braided beard were black, and his eyes were dark and ancient.

Even his ship, the _Hellfire_ , a YT-2400 was raven-black, the only color was the blood red and Beskar chrome of the trim.

He was a very big man and he wore black work gloves to protect his big hands as he loaded the black molded cases onto the ship.

And he sang, as he worked.

His baritone voice was tuneless and light, but full of his black heart and his soul of starlight as he sang.

“ _Here is the wanderer upon the Sea of Time. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the monster who did his bloody crimes. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the warrior upon the windswept hill. Home which has always been there? Awaits him still._ ”

He took a breath, and sang, again.

“ _Who is the man you saw? The man you see again. He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. They are cold and distant. But not to me. All the stars you see. The stars belong to me. Who is the man who sings? His mad song again and again? He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren_.”

And when he had sung all of those things, he took a deeper breath and sang them again.

And kept singing them until his ship was loaded.

Some of the people at every spacedock thought he was crazy, drunk or both, but he was a big man, big as a short Wookiee, too big to argue with.

But there was always one person who was brave enough to come up and ask him the same questions.

To which they always got the same answers.

“Who wrote that song you were singing?”

“I did.”

“Are you a musician?”

“No. I’m a pirate. I started as a pirate. Then I became a monk. And then a warlord. And now? I’m a pirate, again. A mystic desperado.”

“Oh. Well, what’s the song called?”

“The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”

“What’s it about?”

“Me.”

“Well, who are you?”

And he would turn to them and smile.

Just a little.

“I’m The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”

And then he would get in his fast, black ship, and fly off into the stars in such a way that everyone who saw him go believed it.

That he was the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren

That the stars belonged to him.

***

Rey was on Arkanis, wearing a slicker and a rain hat and rain boots but still feeling very wet and cold and miserable when the dockworker they had hired to help them began to sing a song.

It had two parts, and the man sang them both.

“ _Here is the wanderer upon the Sea of Time. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the monster who did his bloody crimes. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the warrior upon the windswept hill. Home which has always been there? Awaits him still_.”

“ _Who is the man you saw? The man you see again. He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. They are cold and distant. But not to me. All the stars you see. The stars belong to me. Who is the man who sings? His mad song again and again? He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren_.”

Rey listened, intently.

“Where did you hear that song?” she asked the dockworker.

“He sings it.”

“Who sings it?”

“The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. Well, I didn’t hear him sing it. A guy I know heard him sing it. Right here, in this spacedock. My friend taught it to me. Now I sing it.”

“Sing it to me, again.”

The man snag the song, again.

***

Rey sang the song to Poe and Finn.

“So the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren made up a song about himself, and he sings it. It’s catchy. But what’s the story behind it?” Poe asked.

“I don’t know.” Rey admitted.

“We should find out. Maybe we can find him, then. And you can have your smile back.” Poe decided.

“Nobody took my smile, Poe.”

“He took it.” Finn told her.

“Who?” Rey insisted.

“The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.” Finn replied

***

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren was sitting in a cantina, eating a huge nerf steak and a mound of mashed potatoes, drinking his second pitcher of beer when his ears began to burn.

“You know that song? The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren?”

“Sure. Everybody knows that song. It’s about The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”

“Yeah, but did you know what it’s about? A guy I know heard it from Poe Dameron. And he fought in the Resistance.”

“So? What’s it about?”

“Well this guy, he was a pilot. Now that Han Solo is dead? This guy is the best pilot in the galaxy. He loves the stars. He’s only happy when he’s in space. The stars belong to him. But the First Order got him, and they put him in jail for a long time. Years. And the pilot went a little crazy in there. When he got out? He declared war on the First Order. He joined the Resistance. And they gave him what he wanted most. A ship. And this pilot? He blew up TIE Fighters. He blew up Star Destroyers. Because the First Order? They took the stars away from him. So when the call went out? He fought in the Battle of Exegol. They shot at him. They chased him. But they couldn’t get him. He was going for it. The Supremacy. And right there on the bridge? In his mask, and his cloak and his Imperial boots? There was Kylo Ren. And the pilot kept flying. And flying. And flying. And when he was right there, right by the front windscreen? He looked Kylo Ren right in the mask. And he fired. He blew up the ship, yeah. But more important? He killed Kylo Ren. So, now he’s back in the stars. But now the stars belong to him, again. Because he killed Kylo Ren.”

“That is a bullshit story. Poe knows better than that. That guy, right over there? The big guy, at the bar? That’s Ben Solo. Han Solo’s son. He’s the best pilot in the Galaxy. Worst part about it is, Ben and Kylo Ren were at the Jedi Temple, together. They used to be friends. Before Kylo Ren turned to the dark side, and betrayed him. And killed Han Solo. Ben’s father. That’s why Ben killed Kylo Ren. With that very lightsaber, in the holster on his blaster belt. It’s got a crossbar. Just like Kylo Ren’s. Right, Ben?”

Ben finished his beer.

“Ben Solo? Why I’ve always ben solo, all these years? You know why? Because I’m The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren!”

Ben sang the song, and laughed.

He left some money on the bar and walked out.

“You sure?”

“Ben’s a little crazy, these days. Losing his father. And they had him in the detention block on a Star Destroyer for a year or two. But that’s him. He wrote the song. And he did the thing…”

***

“…and that was Ben Solo. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. I saw him with my own eyes.”

Finn listened, nodding.

“I know Ben. I used to work for his father. What did this guy look like?”

“Big. He was really big. And he had black hair, and dark eyes. He kinda has a big face. Big ears and a big nose, but it doesn’t look weird on him. He has a beard, but he wears it in a long thin braid from his chin down to his collarbone. And he dresses like a pirate. He didn’t used to wear the Corellian bloodstripe on his pants, but he does now. Because he killed Kylo Ren. Wears a lightsaber and a silver blaster on his blaster belt. One on each hip.”

“That sounds like him. He’s wearing his beard longer, but that’s Ben Solo, alright. You know he spent years in the belly of a Star Destroyer, in the detention block, for killing Snoke. He did Kylo Ren a favor, really, and the son of a bitch locked him up, and tortured him.” Poe replied.

“He’s a little crazy, from it. But you know Ben. He was always kind of a weird guy.”

Poe nodded

“Well, his girl, Rey Skywalker. She’s our scavenger. You say he came to this cantina, every night this week?” Finn asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, if her luck is in? He’ll come in one more night.” Poe replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you think Rey's luck will be in? I do.


	3. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Beauty meets the Great Beast, and Rey begins to discover the mystery of the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren

**Chapter 3: Beauty and the Beast**

Rey just wore what she usually wore.

And she didn’t let Poe or Finn come with her.

She sat at the table the man Finn talked to said that he always sat at.

And around ten, the door swung open.

Ben loped in.

He looked like about ten million credits in solid dull straw spun into reams and reams and reams of molten gold.

Dressed in an all black pilot’s outfit, wearing his lightsaber riding his slim hip on a low-slung blaster belt, in his Imperial jackboots, his long, saturnine face partly shaded in a long, thin, braided black beard and moustache.

He stood in the doorway, scanning the room with his dark, ancient eyes, his gun hand with its long fingers twitching impatiently against his long thigh, right next to his lightsaber.

Waiting for someone to try him.

Not even knowing that he was doing it.

All the breath that Rey had been holding since she watched him fade away rushed out of her body in the loud cry that she made when his eyes met hers, and he opened his arms to her, his face breaking into his beautiful smile.

And she was in his arms, two feet off the ground, her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck and his lips breathed fire into her mouth.

All the blood that had lain listless in her veins began to rush, and her cold silent heart began to beat, and as her heart beat her rushing blood sang an aria.

His aria.

She began, and they sang it, together.

“ _Here is the wanderer upon the Sea of Time. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the monster who did his bloody crimes. The stars are mine. The stars are mine. Here is the warrior upon the windswept hill. Home which has always been there? Awaits him still.”_

_“Who is the man you saw? The man you see again. He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. They are cold and distant. But not to me. All the stars you see. The stars belong to me. Who is the man who sings? His mad song again and again? He is the man to whom the stars belong. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”_

  
***

  
“Don’t talk to me. Don’t say my name. You’ll break the spell, and? Poof! I’ll disappear!"

Ben jumped up onto the bed in the _Hellfire_ as he spoke.

Only Ben Solo would have a king-sized bed in his YT-2400.

He stood up, and whacked his head on the ceiling as he said “Poof!” and fell into bed next to Rey as he said “I’ll disappear.”

“Okay. I won’t.”

“Rey? The stars? They belong to us. They are ours. You are free. Very soon? I’ll be free.”

“I can’t believe you’re alive.” She said.

"I am. And then again? I'm not. I'll show you."

He broke and empty bottle and would have made a cut on his fine, hard, big white body if Rey hadn’t stopped him.

"No, Ben! I can't bear to see you bleed!I Ididn’t mean that literally.”

“But you have not seen the blood of the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren! It is my blood that leads me on this mystical journey!”

He leapt out of bed, again.

“I am the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren! One day I will go home. To you. With you, Rebel Girl. But the stars, the stars they will always belong to us. You think I’m crazy? No, this is the madness of Gods! The madness of Devils! This is…”

Rey waited, watching Ben.

“This is?” she asked.

Ben lay back down next to her, and stared at the ceiling.

“Becoming impossible to sustain.”

He turned his head.

“I love you, Rey. But my mind isn’t my mind anymore. It's...? It's full of fire. The hot fire of the cold stars. It has been since the day I became the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. I’m not Kylo Ren. And I’m not Ben Solo. I’m The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. I’m still a Monster. A Great Beast. And a legend in my own mind. And that’s all I am. Not a man. With a name. Who lives. Just a legend. Who exists. Kylo Ren killed Han Solo. So I’m glad I’m not him. But if I was Ben Solo? My father would be dead. And if I was Ben Solo, who used to be Kylo Ren? Then I killed my own father. People say I am Han Solo all over again. But he’s dead. And I was dead. But now I am not dead. But yet? I am not alive again. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. I didn’t see any Force Ghosts. Or receive any messages from beyond. All I have is a ship and a tall star to sail her by.”

“Maybe I know. I know that Skywalkers don’t die. They have many births. And many deaths. And live many lives, inbetween. I am a Skywalker, now. Because of you. Han was married to your mother. A Skywalker. So he’s a Skywalker the same way I am. And look how many lives I’ve had. You saw him. He spoke to you. So he hasn’t gone anywhere. If Han Solo was alive? Then you could be Ben Solo. Who used to be Kylo Ren. You could both be alive, again. Instead of just legends who exist."

“How would we do it?"

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren seemed interested.

“I don’t know. With the Force. Somehow. There is no more Jedi. No more Sith. No more Dark. No more Light. So there is no more improper use of the Force. You know? Dark Side? Light Side? Fuck it. Our side!”

Now he was grinning.

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

“But you must tell me. Who would take up this quest? To bring two legends to life using the Force? Who could even do it? Who would be mad enough?"

“I know who. The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”  
He smiled.

“You are the most beautiful girl in the world. And the craziest. And the smartest. Yes! You and I will go on a great adventure. I know you now! I know why you looked so familiar to me! You are my life, my muse, my love! Rebel Girl! Rebel Girl and The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. And we will prevail in our great quest. Do you know why?”

“Because the stars belong to us.”

“Yes. Oh yes!”

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren rolled his body on top of Rebel Girl’s.

“Do you know I haven’t made love to a woman since I became The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren? It’s been hard. I’ve got a terrible cramp in my elbow. I’m all out of lotion. I spend a fortune on tissues. Rebel Girl, would you like to be the first woman, nay, the only woman to make love with the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren?”

“Yes, I would. But will it be just for one night?”

“Oh, no. I am a very passionate madman. If you travel with me, on this great adventure? There’s going to be danger. Fast ships. Cheap thrills. Mystical visions. Drunken pirates. Fistfights. Lightsaber duels. Daring Escapes. Spectacular rescues. Spiritual revelations. And sex magick. Quite a bit of sex magick."

“Then I am Rebel Girl. Can we start, right now?”

“Yes, we can!”

He jumped up.

“Not here! No, even the _Hellfire_ cannot contain the magic I will work. Leave your clothes. The stars are calling, the wood is deep and the night is made for love and for magic. After you have seen what I will show you, you would forget your clothes!”

He was Ben, and then?

He wasn’t.

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren, he was filled with life, and joy, and wonder.

Maybe even magic.

Once she had given him an impossible dream to chase, he was dancing along the path it made, as if he could make it so.

The Force wasn’t just with him, it flowed from him and through him, you could almost see it in the air around him.

Maybe it was magic; maybe she was the mystical instrument of his great quest.

After all, she had been the mystical instrument of his redemption.

“Why do we have to go outside?”

“Do you think I have become a prude? No, I have abstained because I brought something back from the world between worlds. Something wonderful and terrible. Magickal. My body explodes with it. My Blood? My Sweat? My semen? They are full of magic now. And fire. Hellfire. The hot fire of the cold stars. It belongs to me. It animates me. It is what gives me my life. An ordinary woman I could not give it to. It might drive her mad. But it will not drive you mad. Not you Rebel Girl. You had to seek me and find me and come to me. So I could give you this magic. I have such things to show you, in the wood and the wild. Of the wood and the wild. In the night. Of the night. Below the stars. The stars that belong to us. Come with me. Join me. Please?"

The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren held his hand out to her.

In the dark days on Crait, Rey had promised herself that if she had another chance, no matter what, she would never refuse this man’s hand, again.

Rebel Girl took the hand of The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

"Of course. Wherever you have gone? I have been. Whatever you do? I have done. Wherever you go, I will go with you. Today. Tomorrow. Yesterday. I will be with you. Always." Rey said.

"That is an oath of powerful binding magic. I accept it. And I swear it on you, in return."

He began pulling her towards the door of his cabin.

“Can't I put my underwear on?”

“That, Rebel Girl, would be cheating."

Rebel Girl went with The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

Naked and unashamed, into the night. 

For love, and life, and in the hope that the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren would give her what he had.

Magic in the blood, and the hot fire of the cold stars.

Forever.

Always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sounds like a mystical quest is in the offing. And some very ancient magic.


	4. Seven Drops of Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which many magickal things unfold.

** Chapter 4: Seven Drops of Blood **

The wood he led her into was tangled, and deep.

Ben wrapped her in the blanket he had brought with him, and scooped Rey into his arms.

“Let the Beast be torn by thorns and brambles, not one will touch his Beauty.”

Thorns and brambles did attack Ben, and the blanket, but it didn’t seem to bother him.

Even when his face was cut, and Rey felt one, two, three, four, five, six, seven drops of his blood fall onto her lips.

They came to a lovely little cleaning, where the grass was so soft.

There was a big tree in the middle of it, with wide, long branches, like arms and fingers reaching to the stars.

Ben put Rey down, and she watched, in disbelief as all of the scratches from the thorns and brambles healed.

“How did you do that?” Rey asked.

“I am one with the Force, and all things that live with it, and in it. And they and the Force are one with me. This is the nature of my Magick. The Magick I have brought back from the world between worlds.”

Ben laid the blanket on the grass.

He lay down on it, his arms behind his head.

Rey's lips were dry, so she licked them, and swallowed the seven drops of Ben’s blood.

“Look with me, at the stars. That was the last thing I saw, the day I became the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren. I can remember all the way back to the day of my birth. To the first time I saw my father’s face. I didn’t know words, then. Or what father was. But I knew that I was of this man, and that when it was dark, and cold? Or when I was hungry, and frightened? I could reach for him, and he would save me. I remember reaching for him with these hands, and the look on his face. He was afraid. He was confused. So was I. And then my mother came, and told him that he was my father. And I just wanted him to hold me. I can remember that first time my father picked me up and held me in his arms. How safe I felt.”

Ben reached towards the stars.

“Kylo Ren thought he destroyed that, for me. But he didn’t.”

“I can feel his presence, in the stars. I inherited the stars from Han Solo. They still belong to him. His spirit is there. But he is cold. Hungry. Frightened. Something is wrong. Lookup into the stars with the eyes of my Magick. See what they have to show you.”

Rey saw Han falling.

Falling.

Falling.

But she did not see him land.

She saw him throw something, as he fell, and he shouted.

Then there was a very bright light.

And he was gone.

Then?

Rey saw the stars, again.

“Ben, can you still see?”

“I see the stars. Tonight, that is all they had to tell of my father. But I still have much to show you. Get up and walk, not toward the brambles. Behind the tree. Tell me what you see when you should find the horizon. But before you do? Take a second look."

Rey found space.

She took a second look and saw that the tree, the clearing and the brambles all seemed to be suspended in space.

And she realized what was so familiar about it.

Nothing above, below, behind, or all around them but the stars. 

It was the very place from Takodana where she and Ben had first met.

As enemies.

“I told you once you needed a teacher. A student is taught in accordance with his ability to learn. What have you learned?” Ben called to her.

“That you really can do magic.”

“That’s just an old-fashioned name for the Force. Magic. We haven’t left the planet we were on. You are seeing through the magick in my blood. But I don’t see it. Tell me what you see, before my Magick fades.”

“The tree on Takodana. And space all around it.”

“Stop seeing it. Concentrate on what you know is real. Leave the vision."

Rey closed her eyes, and brought her mind to a meditative state.

When she opened them, she could see the lights of the town where she had met Ben in the cantina that night.

Rey went back to the tree.

Ben was lying under it, on the blanket, looking at her.

“I told you that you would forget we were naked. Do you remember, now?”

Rey lay down next to Ben, and he held her in his arms.

She grounded herself in reality.

The soft fleecy blanket, the grass beneath it, Ben's arms around her, the familiar scent of him.

How she had dreamed of this, for over a year.

“When you left, you took all my hopes, all my love, all my desire, and all my happiness with you.”

“And your smile. You have that back. Do you want the rest back?”

“I want you. You are all my hopes, all my love, all my desire, and all my happiness.”

“It’s been a long time, Rebel Girl.”

“I know.”

They made love like lions, under the stars that still belonged to them.

It was a magickal night.

***

The next day, Rey went to tell Finn and Poe that she was going off on an adventure with the Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.

They both wanted to get a look at him, so they went to the spacedock where the _Hellfire_ was waiting.

The Man was loading his supplies.

Finn couldn't believe his eyes.

“That’s him! I was in his command crew, I know him! That’s why he called me traitor and tried to kill me! He’s Kylo Ren!”

“Why? Because they’re both tall guys who dress in black? How can you tell? Kylo Ren wore a mask. No, that’s Ben Solo. I know him. We used to work together. Hell, I grew up with him. He’s eccentric, but in a good way. Ben’s a good guy. He’s just been through a lot. Like the rest of us. I know his ship, the _Hellfire_. Fastest ship in the Galaxy. He’s always got good stuff, and good connections. And his word is good as the gold coins he does business with. Ben killed Kylo Ren, everybody knows that! If he's Kylo Ren he'd be dead, so how could he be standing there, loading up his ship?"

"How do you know Kylo Ren is dead?"

"I handled his bloody clothes. I saw the hole that Ben's lightsaber made in his blood-soaked coat, and there were little bits of his charred flesh all around it. I saw his broken mask, all cracked and filled with blood where he coughed it out of his rotten lungs while he died a miserable death in the ruins of the Death Star. That's how I know Kylo Ren is dead. So shut up with that talk? Anchorhead belongs to Ben Solo. He's a guy we need to make a deal with.”

Rey said nothing.

"Something's not right, here! You two stay where you are. I'm going to go talk to this guy."

Finn got to The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren, first.

He hugged Finn.

“FN2187! You're alive and you made it! That's good. You wised up before I did, brother. You never knew we were on the sane side, all along. My head called you traitor, but my heart called you brother.”

"How can you and me be brothers?"

"Did the Empire steal you from your family when you were just a kid? Did they torture you and brainwash you? Did they make you kill for them, and do their dirty work, whether you liked it or not? Did they steal years of your life from you that you're still angry you'll never get back? Did you finally have the courage to turn against them, to go to war with them, and to start killing them until the whole rotten mess fell apart from the inside?"

"How would you know the story of my life?"

"It's the story of my life, too. At least they didn't make you kill your own father. But we fixed them, didn't we."

"They took you from General Solo, and Captain Solo, and Master Skywalker?"

"Space was my home. And I wanted to hide there, with my father. But my mother and my Uncle wanted me to be a Jedi, not a pirate. Or a pilot. Nobody asked me what I wanted. Snoke poisoned my own Uncle's mind against me so he tried to cut my head off while I was sleeping in my room at the Jedi Temple. I ran to Snoke because I was a boy who had been betrayed by his Uncle, who was also his Master. My father had already sent me back to the Jedi Temple. And my mother was always more concerned with politics than she was with me. By the time I realised I was in the hands of evil madmen? I was just as screwed as you were, FN 2187. I was just as much a prisoner and a slave to Snoke as you. That's why I killed him, as soon as I had the strength. I wish my command crew had been there to see me do it. I know you all hated him like the damned hate Hell. But I remember what we used to do to blow off steam."

He rolled a barrel over to Finn and pressed a carton of exotically spicy smelling cigarillos into his hand.

"For old time's sake, Finn."

“You remember what kind of cigarillos I liked? And that I drink Arkanian ale?”

“I remember everything, and nothing. I’m The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”

“Yeah. I guess you are.”

"Just like you're the man who killed FN2187. You keep my secrets, Finn, and I'll keep all of yours. Deal?"

"Deal. After all, it's not like there's a jail that could hold you. Or anything that could kill you if you didn't want to die. I know."

"Don't tell Rey and Poe that. It'll just scare them."

Poe joined the conversation.

“Come on, Ben! Quit fucking around! I know you, don’t I?”

They shook hands.

Laughing like pirates.

“Sure you do, Poe. All our lives, huh?"

"You knew this guy when you were kids?" Finn asked.

"Well, yeah! My parents were friends with his parents. They did the whole New Republic thing, together. Don't be surprised if Ben Solo does weird things. he's a real nut. Always has been. Right, Ben?"

"Crazy like a fox, Poe. Thanks for taking care of Rebel Girl for me. You gave her a nice living. Did you get in on the market for First Order swag? Old caps, and badges. Uniform coats. Teenagers wear them to piss their parents off. I got stacks of that shit in my warehouse. Even some old Imperial shit. It weighs nothing, doesn’t take up much space and it sells fast. Here. Take a box of it. You'll be surprised what you get for it. If you want more, come see me in Anchorhead. At the Mos Eisley Cantina.”

“How do you know about this shit, Ben? I just heard this First Order shit was hot, a couple days ago, and you already scored some and you’re moving it.”

“I know everything, and nothing. I'm The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be an two part-interlude with reality, the first part in which Reality Strikes Back, and the second part in which we shall be In Bed With The Man Who Killed Kylo Ren


End file.
